Classifying Christians : Ethnography, Heresiology, and the Limits of Knowledge in Late Antiquity

__Classifying Christians__ investigates late antique Christian heresiologies as ethnographies that catalogued and detailed the origins, rituals, doctrines, and customs of the heretics in explicitly polemical and theological terms. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic evidence and contemporary ethnographic writing, Todd S. Berzon argues that late antique heresiology shares an underlying logic with classical ethnography in the ancient Mediterranean world. By providing an account of heresiological writing from the second to fifth century, __Classifying Christians__ embeds heresiology within the historical development of imperial forms of knowledge that have shaped western culture from antiquity to the present. Classifying Christians investigates late antique Christian heresiologies as ethnographies that catalogued and detailed the origins, rituals, doctrines, and customs of the heretics in explicitly polemical and theological terms. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic evidence and contemporary ethnographic writing, Todd S. Berzon argues that late antique heresiology shares an underlying logic with classical ethnography in the ancient Mediterranean world. By providing an account of heresiological writing from the second to fifth century, Classifying Christians embeds heresiology within the historical development of imperial forms of knowledge that have shaped western culture from antiquity to the present. Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Writing People, Writing Religion 1. Heresiology as Ethnography: Th e Ethnographic Disposition 2. Comparing Theologies and Comparing Peoples: Th e Customs, Doctrines, and Dispositions of the Heretics 3. Contesting Ethnography: Heretical Models of Human and Cosmic Plurality 4. Christianized Ethnography: Paradigms of Heresiological Knowledge 5. Knowledge Fair and Foul: Th e Rhetoric of Heresiological Inquiry 6. The Infinity of Continuity: Epiphanius of Salamis and the Limits of the Ethnographic Disposition 7. From Ethnography to List: Transcribing and Traversing Heresy Epilogue Bibliography Index "Classifying Christians investigates the ways in which late antique Christian heresiologists (150-450 C.E.) produced polemical ethnographies and presented their ethnographic dispositions in theological terms. The book demonstrates how the rituals, doctrines, customs, and origins of heretics functioned to map and delimit the composition of the Christian world and the world at large. Heresiology was about understanding human difference andorganizing knowledge of it"--Provided by publisher. "Classifying Christians investigates the ways in which late antique Christian heresiologists (150-450 C.E.) produced polemical ethnographies and presented their ethnographic dispositions in theological terms. The book demonstrates how the rituals, doctrines, customs, and origins of heretics functioned to map and delimit the composition of the Christian world and the world at large. Heresiology was about understanding human difference and organizing knowledge of it"--Provided by publisher